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Labour market integration in a pre-industrial economy: Catalonia, 1772–1816
History Faculty, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB3 9EF; e-mail: nm371{at}cam.ac.uk
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This paper examines labour's reward and labour market integration in Catalonia before the first Industrial Revolution. Using new quantitative evidence on urban wages, it addresses two main issues. First, what was the performance of agricultural and urban wages during the last five decades of the so-called pre-industrial period, and what consequences did wage evolution have for labourers? Second, did wage responses reflect a situation of labour market integration? The findings here support the idea that labour markets worked before the advent of the Industrial Revolution, and find resonance with wider arguments on the overall development of Catalonia.
Key Words: JEL classifications: J43 J61 F15 N94